single-line terinary operators considered harmful

[Lennart Regebro]

"Clark C. Evans" <cce at clarkevans.com> wrote in message news:<mailman.1046832150.1332.python-list at python.org>...
> Getting it to fit on a single line is just an unnecessary
> distraction, and, IMHO, one that is bogging down the whole 
> discussion down... and preventing a good mechanism to 
> express conditional logic within an expression.


Yup.

That said, I don't mind a x = conditional(c, a, b), becuase it looks
like a function. If people neseecarily have to make if-then-else
statements like this on one line, create that function. Heck, here it
is:


conditional.py:

def conditional(c, a, b):
    if c:
        return a
    else:
        return b


Done!

Look, I even tested it for you! :)

>>> from conditional import conditional
>>>
>>> x = conditional(1, 'True', 'False')
>>> print x
True


So there. No, go and vote "I reject all options". There is no point in
adding ugluness to a pretty language if that uglyness doesn't have a
real value, and this hasn't. If you want one line conditionals, now
you have them. :)